Walter Kale stepped out of the rented red salon car. His shirt hung out of his trousers and his hair was plastered with sweat - he had been working hard.

Suddenly on the mark of his car door closing a dozen policemen stepped out of unmarked cars.

A policeman, obviously the leader, stepped forward, his clothes were well pressed, a perfect crease ran down his trousers. He starred at Kale with cold determined eyes.

"Stand still!"

Guns were pointed at Kale. His eyes darted around the scene of confusion.

"You have the right to remain silent," intoned the lead policeman. "Anything you say can be used against you as evidence in a court of law. You have the right to a lawyer. Do you understand your rights?"

Walter Kale, a perfectionist, a most meticulous man nodded his head in an appearance of comprehension. He was lost in a whirlwind of confusion; he did not know what to do.

The Kales lived in Chicago, home to the Chicago Bears, not something Walter had much concern over. However Janice, his wife, enjoyed American football if only to get away from her husband for four quarters. Janice had been planning to go to New York, her company was moving their offices halfway across the country to try and drum up business for a company that was almost dead. Almost as dead as Walter and Janice's marriage.

Sweat still soaked his hair and his shirt still hung out. His eyes darted around and stubble indicated he had not shaved in days. Altogether he looked completely dishevelled. The hand slammed down on the desk, but it was not Walters, in fact Walter was perfect, clean shaven, with a calm face and piercing eyes. The hand and the dishevelled look belonged to Johnathon Callon, the man who had arrested Walter.

Callon had reached boiling point. In all of his years in the Chicago police department never had he met such a cool and collected liar. Walter Kale had led them so far off track with his lies, if Callon and his partner had not searched everywhere then they would not have found the incriminating evidence.

"One more time," said Callon, at this rate we will need another tape, he thought. "What happened on 12th May 1997?"

Kale just sat there cool and calm, staring straight at Callon. Callon tried to read Kale's face but there were no discernible emotions. Kale's face was as blank and featureless as an ordinary building brick; his body betrayed nothing.

Then he spoke, leaning forward slightly so that the tape machine would pick his voice up. "I had gone to meet my wife, she had asked if I could pick her up. She was travelling home from a football game." Kale's voice was innocent enough but it betrayed knowledge, and knowledge was power. "She came off the train and I went to meet her...

'"Walter, leave me alone," said Janice.

'"But," I stuttered taken aback. I had been trying for a few weeks to sort things out between us maybe trying to re kindle the romance and I knew it was useless to point out that she had asked me to pick her up.

'"Walter, look maybe sometimes I don't want to always be met by you. Reconciliation often follows separation."

'Lifting my arms to her I said, "Here's a bunch of flowers for you."

'Janice took them and her face visibly lit, "oh Walter, I haven't had flowers in years, maybe you have changed." Lifting the flowers to her face she sniffed them then commented. "They smell beautiful, I'll put them in a vase once we're home."

'I led Janice to our car, a blue Ford which had a visible amount of rust along the left hand door. Janice got in then I got in and drove away.'

Five minutes later the couple had arrived home, an acrid burning smell hung in the air.

"Do you smell that?" asked Janice.

"Smell what?"

"Burning, oh my God it's coming from our house," Janice ran for the house suddenly alarmed, almost falling on the way...

Kale looked up at Callon, "I had left the potatoes on to cook. I completely forgot to turn them off..."

"Look at my new pots," Janice surveyed the damage. "A present from my mother only two months ago and you ruined them."

Kale's nose wrinkled up in distaste at the mess. "Well if you weren't always at the football..." Kale left it to Janice's imagination.

Janice, however, had a reply ready, "well if you had been a better husband."

"...then I suggested that she went and had a bath to calm down." Kale looked up at Callon to show that his story was at an end.

"And you never saw her again?" asked Callon for the record.

"No," replied Kale succinct and to the point.

Callon sat down on the chair opposite Kale and looked straight into his opponents eyes; he had something up his sleeve. Kale was all fine and dandy when it came to bluffing but Callon held all four aces.

"Can I ask you something?" probed Callon. "It's just to clear up a few loose ends."

"Fine."

"Who ran the bath?" Callon stalked his prey.

"What has this go to do with anything?"

He is spooked, thought Callon, he has my scent and he knows that he is being closed in on. He persisted with the question, "did you run the bath?"

Kale thought for a moment, you could almost hear the cogs and gears ticking away, then he replied, "yes, I filled the bath."

"With pure water?"

"Yes my wife had a mild skin complaint, ordinary water flares it up something terrible."

"Your wife had?" Callon was running towards his prey. His eyes were set, staring straight at Kale who's twitching gaze refused to meet his.

"Yes, had, if you happen to check her medical records you might notice vthat it has been clearing up," Callon thought he saw a smug grin on Kale's face but maybe it was his imagination.

"Back to the pure water, how do you get so much?"

"We filter it."

"How?" asked Callon, his run almost complete.

"Through filters installed in our water system."

"When were they installed?"

"Last week," replied Kale, a look of curiosity on his face. That was it thought Callon, he was worried.

"Did you put in the bath salts?" The hunter had stalked its prey, had closed in and was now pouncing for the kill.

"Pardon?" Kale was sweating profusely.

"We found your fingerprints on the bath salts tub, not your wife Janice's."

Kale exploded. I have worn him away thought Callon, I'm finally going to get something. "Do you think I killed my wife by adding bath salts to pure water in order to raise the conductivity so I could electrocute her?" Callon imagined Kale foaming at the mouth with anger and smiled.

"I don't know. How did you kill your wife?" The kill.

"I didn't!" countered Kale hastily.

"Let me tell you this, we found a high concentration of bath salts down the drain. Our forensics experts determined that at that concentration the bath salts would have turned the water so alkaline that it would have literally burned the skin off of your wife."

"I dropped the box of bath salts, but washed it away, It was an accident. And since you can explain everything Callon, explain the disappearance of my car, mm?"

"You probably pushed it off a cliff," replied Callon. He knew that Kale had done it.

"My wife probably took it to drive to New York, to her company's new headquarters."

"But your wife never arrived in New York. In fact she hasn't arrived anywhere."

"But that has nothing to do with me," Kale shot Callon down quickly and efficiently.

Callon reached forward a weary look in his eye once again, "this is getting us nowhere, we'll resume questioning tomorrow." With a heavy sigh the taped recorder was clicked off then Callon looked up at Kale. "Off the record, did you kill your wife?"

"No," replied Kale starring Callon straight in the eye, his calm demeanour had once again returned, "but I most certainly thought about it, however, it's not a crime to think." Kale smirked to himself.